Off topic - Voicemail - what's the point...?

[donnyguy]

Having recently read a post on here about voicemail (it related to visual voicemail not being available on Vodafone), I wanted to put it out there to see if anyone else was of the same opinion of me that voicemail is an outdated product in our modern age.

I remember when it was relevant, before we had mobiles and it was a physical unit attached to the landline that would blink a red light when someone left a message or record onto mini tapes. But of course things have moved on.

For me, not having voicemail on my personal mobile means a lot. I recently left Vodafone for another provider and came back when I found suddenly, without me asking, my voicemail service was reactivated on an overseas trip. It turns out some networks do that but thankfully not Vodafone. You de-activate it, it stays de-activated until you choose otherwise. That works for me.

But back to my point, ask yourself, when do you leave a voice message? When you call someone, the phone rings and rings and usually when you hear "This is the Vodafone voicemail service for...." then it signifies it's time to hang up. It's the cue to end the call. It's not the point where you think right I'll record a message.

If you're calling someone who knows you (friend / foe / whoever) and they have your details in their phone then it's the missed call notification that will prompt them to call you back. 

If you're calling and you need them to pick up then you'll either call straight back or you'll send them a text.

So for me, who makes and recieves a lot of international calls, voicemail is a frustration. Not so much now where I have international minutes with Vodafone but before when I paid for calls. I'd call an overseas number and if the voicemail kicked in, I'd be billed. Of course I'd hang up for all the reasons above (they've seen my call, they'll call back) but I've been charged for listening to a few seconds of "You've reached the AT&T voicemail for..."

My final reason for loving not having voicemail is, when your phone is off. It's off. The world leaves you alone. They didn't get hold of you. If they want you, they'll text you. A text takes seconds to read, they're clear and to the point. There's no rambling. 

This is why so many companies communicate via text. It's a great communication tool for the modern age. There are a lot of companies out there now who are removing employee voicemail boxes as they are seen as unproductive and I'm 100% on board.

So.... all of the above relates to personal mobiles, if you use it for business reasons then there's cases where voicemail is needed.

But what do you think? Am I right? Or could you not live without your mailbox, am I missing a point somewhere?

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi @donnyguy

Your not wrong or right

Yes Voicemail has been a useful tool that's been around for quite a while and for the reasons you mention can be useful or not so. 

I work in an environment where answering my phone isn't permitted so personally if it's one of my contacts or family they'll send a following text or await for me to return their call as I too decide to leave my voicemail turned Off on any Mobile Network I use. 

I'm sure it has it's place and uses for some but not for me. 

I submit one use would be if an incoming call is a withheld number so letting it go to voicemail would be more preferential for some, and then listen back to any recording. 

[jeffkinn]

An interesting thread. Personally I find that voicemail is still an essential tool for me. I have a variety of clients and it's not always possible for me to speak to them during the day. If they call and leave a voicemail at least I can find out what they want and perhaps deal with it during that day by email.

I have been using Hullomail for several years as a visual voicemail app and I've just renewed my annual £8.99 premium subscription.

I find it irritating when I call someone's mobile and there is no voicemail available. Unlike some who get tongue tied when they hear a voicemail greeting, I am quite happy leaving a short but detailed message as to what I want and why I called.

I also Call Minder on my home phone and even though we don't get many messages, I still woudln't be without it.

[Annie_N]

I'm with @jeffkinn on this one - with a number of parallel threads in my life, and also living in an area where not-spots seem to be the rule rather than the exception, I wouldn't be without voicemail on both the mobile and the landline. Neither is heavily used, but still well worth having.

Though I share @donnyguy's irritation with the network which won't let you turn voicemail off, especially since in my case all the voicemail comes from debt-collection agencies pursuing the previous user of the number I've been given. It's my back-up line when walking in remote areas, so I don't use it heavily, and my top-ups seem to be used almost exclusively to contact the agencies and try to convince them that the phone contract must have gone west along with virtually everything else in the previous user's extravagent lifestyle. Very educational, but it is getting irritating.

Voicemail, landlines and cash will all wither on the vine, but I think it will take some considerable time before any of them disappear totally.

[JohnUK]

Good discussion about voicemail. I too hate getting voicemail when abroad - it costs me money to listen to it and 9/10 its an unwanted caller or if they have a poor signal then I can't hear their name/number correctly.

Friends/Business tent to message me on WhatApp/Slack and its a good way to get the exact message with a photo or link. Getting text messages tends to be free. 

One good point of voicemail is that you can sense the person's real emotion/feeling which you can't do on messages, especially if its family member.  e.g. "Call me when you are free, I need to talk to you" 

Perhaps in a few years voicemail will be a thing of the past as people start switch to messaging or messaging with voice input (Siri, Google, etc)

[Annie_N]

It depends a bit exactly where "abroad" I am, but I keep a modest credit with Skype, so that I can listen to my voicemail via that, if making the call via the local network would come too expensive.

[jeffkinn]

The whole purpose of using something like Hullomail as a voicemail service is that it doesn't require a phone call to listen to the message. It has its own app to deliver the message and it also emails the message as an attachment. That means I don't even need the phone to be able to listen to my voicemails.

[Annie_N]

So the email attachment is an audio file? That's neat!

Now all I have to do is persuade those of my friends who simply won't ring a mobile number to change their minds, and I could dispense with the landline entirely. Hmm...

[jeffkinn]

Yes the email attachment is an audio file. You can also listen to the message through the app. You can even ring and listen to your messages.